Anyway, the thing with Samurai X and Rurouni Kenshin is that Samurai X was simply some shmancy name that some anime marketing person thought would push more copies. Samurai X is still Rurouni Kenshin, just an OAV prequel to Kenshin.
The notion here is that Kenshin went from bloodthirsty, misguided killer, to someone who puts on a mask of happiness in order to be able to enjoy the simpler and more enjoyable things in life. He fakes it so he can be happy again.
The idea is that in the Kenshin TV series, there is a dark side to Kenshin that many are not familiar with, especially the characters near Kenshin like Yahiko, Sano, and Kaoru. The Kenshin OAV gave people a look inside Kenshin's past to see what was in his head, and how he became the Battousai to begin with.
But that's going into too much detail and I think I'm ranting away from the point. To be honest, I've found a number of "Samurai X" vids as well as Kenshin vids. Kenshin is a good source of anime footage because the series is so long at more than 100 episodes. That's a lot of good action and plot footage for vids. The OAV, while not as long, still has some good stuff going for it, and I recall a good vid of it to "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" which fit pretty well.
The more source footage there is, the easier it is to make AMVs. That's a good reason why DBZ, Sailor Moon, Naruto, Kenshin, and the others have so many AMVs. The source footage is so abundant, that people think they can do anything and make it work in an AMV. NOT TRUE! The opposite is in fact true, because to make a good AMV with a series with so much footage, picking the RIGHT clip for the RIGHT section of the music is VERY difficult. With so much to choose from, getting the best match requires LOTS and LOTS of reviewing the different suitable pieces of footage, and then tying it all together into a coherent theme.
It's tricky to get this right, but with time and effort, it can be done. The problem is in the popularity of it that brings in people who don't want to put in that time and effort, and that leads to crummy videos.
The most amazing thing that can happen to an AMV is when it turns out good BY ACCIDENT! I call upon the video of Record of Lodoss War TV to Monty Python's "Camelot" song. This vid was made in less than 2 weeks if I remember correctly, and the person did it "for fun" because the thought it'd be a funny idea.
Well it turns that the funny idea was funny enough, that it propelled the vid forward into infamy, and is still one of my favorite short, but sweet, funny videos. Even though the time they put in was minimal, and effort was not as strong as usual, it was STILL really good! And that surprised the AMV creator too!
More talent in the world of AMVs isn't a bad thing, but the sheer LACK of talent that we can see is really becoming annoying. That's what the people who have a good head on their shoulders...
(For example, someone who knows their AMVs, but can't make them, does not make that person unable to tell a good AMV from a bad one, and what it is about it that makes them think and feel this way. It's the same way critics are with movies. They don't make them, but they can pinpoint the flaws and good points from their position outside of the movie's production)
... and the AMV creators who have a great track record of good AMVs need to help out the youthful aspirationalists and try and get them to understand what makes a video good, how it can be made original, and what is the best way to get it right.
Now what I want to know is what the best way to do that is!
~Otaku-Man











